What Might Have Been
by wendigo3
Summary: J/E Fic. In the future, Jesse and Emma realize that one event caused their lives to turn to hell. Can Emma reverse it in time to fix everything that went wrong?


Title: What Might Have Been  
Author: Travis Johnson  
Contact Me: wendigo3@hotmail.com  
Summary: Jesse and Emma meet up in the future and realize that their future went to hell with the lack of one event. Can Emma fix things before she or Jesse must live one more day with the pain they share?  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Mutant X, the idea of the abilities or mutations, or any of the characters. I also don't own "What Might Have Been" which was a big hit for the group, 'Little Texas.' This story was written for personal reading and should not be sold.   
  
Archive: Be my guest! Put it anywhere you want (:  
  
Big Note: All of the text between the two symbols ('-' and '-') are used to symbolize the words from the song.   
  
Author Note: First of all, I'm sorry if this story gets confusing. I really hated the idea of breaking this up into a chapter format. Because of the size, I figured it should just stay as I originally wrote it. Second, I got the idea for this story after listening to the song. The story just played out in my head and all I had to do was write it down and pass it on. I hope you all like it.  
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2038  
  
An old man wearing a tan colored coat walked into a large café and sat down. He waited for the waitress to walk over to him and asked for some coffee. A few young children noticed the old man sitting alone and smiled at him, but didn't stare due to the warning from their parents. The man smiled back at them, and then glanced down to his hands. With deep concentration, they became rock solid. He focused his mind and tried to hold them that way until as long as possible but within seconds they returned to normal. He bit his lip as anger flowed through him. The young waitress brought back a cup of coffee and placed it on the table. She got a small bowl of tiny servings of creamer and then walked behind the counter to help the young men sitting and talking about life. He ignored the creamer and put the metal spoon in his coffee, stirring quickly in a counter-clockwise motion. His right hand shook momentarily and he quickly caught himself even though his hand melted through the spoon. He bit back the desire to look around and see if anyone noticed as a familiar scent filled the air. It reminded him of Sanctuary.   
  
Four cups of coffee later, the people in the café had changed. "Can I get you any thing else?" The man looked up at the waitress and smiled, "No thank you, I believe it's time to go now." He quickly gave the young girl a tip and the money to cover the coffee. She returned from the cash register with a receipt and his change. "Thanks for stopping in." "You're quite welcome, thank you for the coffee." The woman smiled at the man as he walked away. She shook her head sadly and then walked over to a table that filled up with young teenagers. The man continued to walk into the street until he walked to a bus stop. He sat down at the covered bench and sighed. He had to catch his breath, he remembered the good days when that never happened. He looked at the receipt and read the name of the waitress aloud, "Emma," as a variety of emotions flooded into his mind.  
  
- Sure, I think about you now and then,  
But it's been a long, long time.  
I've got a good life now; well, I've moved on.  
So when you cross my mind... -  
  
The man's attention changed quickly as a young mother sat down next to him holding a young baby in her arms. He smiled at her and for a moment, thought he saw a young bit of Emma in her. He bit his tongue before he asked her if she knew who Emma was, he was going crazy thinking about her as much as he did. Sure, his molecular abilities were failing and Mutant X had crumbled a long time ago, but things weren't that bad. Emma could still be alive somewhere, she could even be in the same city as him. The woman looked at him, "Are you okay sir?" "Yes, I'm fine." He gave a tiny laugh and looked at the baby. "Are you a new mother?" "No, this is my third child. My other two are with their father this weekend, my husband died a few months ago before I had his child." The man looked at the young girl as her eyes got watery, telling him quickly that she wasn't over his death. Maybe he did learn a few things from Emma after all. "I'm sorry to hear that, I'm sure he would have loved to meet your child." The woman looked at him. "You're very sweet, my name is Charlene. This is Jonathan, he's named after his father." The cool air blew around them as the man extended his hand and met the woman's and shook it for a second. "My name is Jesse. I'm proud to share the bench with you and your son." The woman laughed openly and then stood up as a bus came. "It was very nice to meet you, I hope I see you again." Jesse smiled. "The feeling is mutual, I hope your family can move on." She thanked him and then got on the bus. It left quickly and he was thankful that it wasn't the bus he needed.   
  
As he sat and thought, his mind wondered to the first time he had met Emma. How he had protected her from bullets that nearly killed her, when he knew he loved her from the first time he met her and even those moments that we was too stubborn to admit it. Everything came back quickly and then left as he vowed to forget the past and get on with his life.  
  
- I try not to think about what might have been.  
'Cos that was then and we have taken different roads.  
We can't go back again; there's no use giving in.  
And there's no way to know what might have been. -  
  
It was never difficult to talk to her and tell him how much he loved her. Hell, she could probably feel it miles away. After the accident, things changed. He remembered how the entire group felt when Adam had died, as if they all failed him in their own way. In a way he was the only human who truly cared for the four of them, their protector and father in one. He missed him to that day, but knew that he couldn't return back in time and stop it. Adam had been assassinated while speaking on behalf of Mutant X when their secret was discovered by the public, all because a renegade new mutant disclosed their secrets to the world. He used his powers and went after the President but they killed him. There was no stopping the fear and violence that would come to their kind, and Adam knew that. He wanted to protect his friends but things changed. Still, he also thought about all of the fun they had together. All of the dangerous situations brought the team closer together, there were days that they would just laugh. Every day was like a fantastic party that involved 5 people. By the time Adam had died, Brennan and Shalimar had already been married and within a few weeks after his death, Shalimar was expecting their first child. The baby was stillborn, a side effect of the mutation that had made Shalimar a strong feral mutant. If Adam had been alive, he would have killed himself and felt the blame over what he had done and his part in everything over the past twenty four years. If Adam had been alive...  
  
- We could sit and talk about this all night long.  
And wonder why we didn't last.  
Yes, they might be the best days we will ever know.  
But we'll have to leave them in the past. -  
  
Stop it! He cleared his mind of his memories that had come floating back easily and wiped the tears from his eyes. He prayed the bus would come quickly, it had been a few hours since he had taken his medication. The protecting that it had once offered him was wearing off faster and faster each week and if he continued in the same way all of his mutant abilities would go crazy. He wouldn't be able to stop himself from massing out and loosing his life, and his dignity. He needed to get home quickly. He stood up as the bus came and once again promised to stop thinking about things he couldn't change. He knew ahead of time, like all of the others, that he would remember within minutes. It seemed that his entire life was taken up by remembering. Still, he also wondered if Emma remembered him.  
  
- So try not to think about what might have been.  
'Cos that was then and we have taken different roads.  
We can't go back again; there's no use giving in.  
And there's no way to know what might have been. -  
  
Almost an hour later he got off the bus and was only a few blocks from his apartment. He felt a strange feeling as he walked inside until he saw a familiar face staring back at him. Emma stood with radiance and waved slowly. "Is this real? Are you really here?" Emma hugged him. "I'm here Jesse, really here!" The two of them sat down as Jesse made them tea. It was nice and warm and Jesse couldn't stop looking at her, as if she were a figment of his imagination. "My abilities aren't under control anymore." Emma nodded, "Mine are 'iffy' at best. I've been having problems focusing on people but their emotions still come through clear as day, like yours are now." "I'm just glad to see you, I missed you." Emma nodded, "I missed you too. I talked to Brennan and Shalimar, they wanted to come but they couldn't, the had a lot of things to do." Jesse nodded, "Shalimar still blames me for not protecting Adam, you don't have to hide it." "She doesn't blame you anymore, but she isn't ready to see you. If she sees you all of those emotions would come back and it would tear her up again, she spent a lot of time locking them up inside of her." Jesse looked down to the floor and then purposely cleared his mind and emotions. He looked back up to her smiling, "So how's the profession? Still teaching Psychology at the university?" "Yes, although these days it seems the kids are teaching me more than I'm teaching them." "Yeah, It always seems like that when you're older." Emma looked at the floor and tried to avoid Jesse's eyes. "What's wrong," he asked casually. Emma stared at him for a moment, almost sizing him up to see if he were ready for the question, and then let it out openly, "What happened to us?  
  
- That same old look in your eyes;  
It's a beautiful night;   
I'm so tempted to stay.  
But too much time has gone by;  
We should just say goodbye,  
And turn and walk away. -  
  
"...I don't know," Jesse said flatly. He had no real idea about what had happened. "It was like it was a bunch of little things that separated everyone over a period of time. Without Adam we all fell apart and went our different ways." Emma lowered her head to the table and stared at her hands. "I wish I could go back and fix it, life has been hell. I hate teaching, it's boring. I need the action." Jesse smiled, "You want action, huh?" An older Emma playfully hit Jesse in the shoulder such as she commonly did in the old days. Memories flooded back to each of them. Emma stood up suddenly in the middle of the conversation as tears started to fall. "I can't be here Jess, it hurts too much." Jesse nodded and then stood up, "I know. You're probably picking up on how I feel." Emma smiled, "You never did realize that I could sense everything about you." Within seconds they carefully met in a hug and Jesse kissed Emma's cheek. After the hug ended, Emma wiped her tears as she told him her plan. "I have an idea Jesse, something that I've really been thinking about. I want to try to fix things." "Emma, we talked about going back in time before, we can't." "This isn't about that Jess, unfortunately I can't tell you how I'm going to do it." Jesse didn't bother to tell her not to try anything, because he knew that no matter what she said, she would do it. "Be careful." "I promise, I'll call you later if it doesn't work." Jesse nodded and stood there watching Emma as she walked out of his apartment. She closed the door slowly and then walked out of the building and down the street. Emma remembered when she had first felt his love for her, but she had been too afraid to talk to him about it. In fact, every time she had felt it, she always covered it up with a sarcastic remark. Hell, she wanted to kiss him right then, each of those times, but she was too scared. Brennan, Adam, and Shalimar were usually with them in the same room, seeing Emma and Jesse develop their relationship would obviously change things between the team. Still, Brennan and Shal were able to make it work, something just happened to Jesse after Adam died. Something horrible. "Stop talking to yourself Emma, you can't focus on the past. We've got to get this done!"  
  
- And try not to think about what might have been.  
'Cos that was then and we have taken different roads.  
We can't go back again; there's no use giving in.  
And there's no way to know what might have been' -  
  
Emma stood in the middle of an empty room in New York's largest public library. A sense of fear came and passed as she focused on what she wanted to do. It was more of what she needed to do to stop feeling so guilty. She sat on the floor and closed her eyes as she tried to concentrate on her abilities. She hoped that her DNA hadn't started to break down, but she worried that if she used too much of her abilities it would start to happen anyway. "I have to do this," She told herself, as she started slowing her breathing. She thought about what kind of emotions to send and decided that the start of their problems was their lack of love. Emma knew what do to and pushed every bit of emotion that she had, and even those that she picked up from the people around her. She didn't pause when her head started to hurt or her ears popped, and she didn't stop when her nose started to bleed and she lost the feeling in her right arm. She fell backwards unconscious and stopped breathing. Her DNA had broken down but she didn't allow herself to feel the pain. No one found her until it was time for the library to clean the offices. They tried to call the doctor but it was too late, Emma was dead from a brain aneurysm. Still, her psionic message stayed in the room until the door opened. It was then released into the world.  
  
2003  
  
Emma walked into Sanctuary and sat down on the couch. Jesse and Shalimar sat across from her and Brennan and Adam walked into the room with a bag of popcorn. "Everyone ready for the movie?" "Almost," Shalimar said standing up. "I need to get the movie." Shalimar ran out of the room and came back a few moments later with a DVD in her hand. As soon as Emma saw Shalimar she clutched her hands to the arms of the chair. The emotions that she picked up on pulled her from the world that she was in as they flooded into her mind at amazing speeds, continuously playing until she got enough control to tell it to stop. As soon as she sensed Jesse staring at her, she looked at him. "Emma, are you okay?" Emma nodded and stood up. She ignored the other people in the room, it didn't matter. She knew what was going to happen in their future. It was a horrible future, and the information that she had received, although she couldn't be sure if it was from her future self, would help them. She couldn't let the future happen that way. She kissed Jesse quickly and the other team members just stood there in amazement. After it was over, Emma smiled as her face got red. "Wow, that was some hit." "You sensed something?" Emma nodded to Shalimar, "I saw things from the future, it was horrible." "The future was horrible, how?" "I'm not sure if I should say. Maybe we should just let things stay as they are. We weren't meant or even supposed to know what happened, it was just something I was given. I needed a push and I got it." Brennan nodded and pulled Shalimar on the other couch with him as Emma sat next to Jesse. He held her close and she sensed his emotions easily. They flowed through her and she had no trouble ignoring the other emotions around her. Everything felt... complete. Before the movie started, Adam passed the popcorn to Emma with a smile that made Emma feel as if Adam knew what was going on. "I guess we'll never know what might have been."  
  
- No, we'll never know, what might have been. -  
  
--The End-- 


End file.
